The global IC substrate industry market scale is expected to grow at a rate of 9.8% in 2014, and then speed up to 11.6% in 2015.

PCB (printed circuit board) industry can be divided into three broad categories i.e. rigid PCB, flexible PCB (FPCB) and substrate. IC substrate industry suffered a continuous decline in 2012 and 2013, rooted in two aspects: first, the PC shipment declined, and CPU substrate as the main type of IC substrate enjoyed the highest average selling price (ASP); second, to suppress the development of Japanese and Taiwanese IC substrate vendors, Korean companies slashed price, Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEMCO), in particular, implemented a nearly 30% price cut. This led to the global IC substrate industry market scale down 10.3% to USD7.568 billion in 2013. But after suffering comes happiness, IC substrate industry is expected to bloom in 2014 and 2015.

There are several factors for the growth in 2014.

First, MediaTek's 8-core MT6592 adopts FC-CSP packaging. Released in October 2013, the chip will see shipment boost-up in 2014. Entering the age of 28nm, MediaTek will ensure uniform adoption of FC-CSP packaging; Spreadtrum from Mainland China will follow in its footsteps.

Fourth, the pursuit of ultra-thin mobile phone requires chip with good heat dissipation, FC-CSP packaging boasts obvious advantages in terms of heat dissipation and thickness. Main chip for mobile phone of the future will be the FC-CSP packaging or SiP module packaging, involving power management and memory.

Fifth, PC industry will revive in 2014. Tablet PC will not see high growth, even fall in 2014, since consumers have been aware of its function only as a toy but completely unable to compare with PC in performance, PC industry will usher in recovery. At last, SEMCO will not fall back on price-cutting competition, because it is Taiwan's TSMC not Samsung Electronics that on track to produce Apple's next-generation processor A8. Even slashing price, it is impossible for TSMC to turn over the order.